Paula Cole - I Don't Want to Wait and Where Have All the Cowboys Gone
RICKY MARTIN
Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
a shit ton of Creed
Green Day - Time of Your Life
this is only a peedrop in the ocean of horrible 90s songs

I don't get why it receives so much undiluted hatred. Maybe there were so many good proper guitar bands with proper tunes back then, that anything with the slightest gimmick - i.e. that "Pray for REVOLUTION!" shriek got instantly shot down in flames?

Tom Ewing's just coming up to that on his brilliant Popular blog. (Last number 1 was Status Quo - Come on You Reds!) It'll be a particularly interesting retrospective, I'd just started taping the charts in 1994 and that nearly killed my interest in music - and life - stone dead. I blame it for making me quit the Scouts, but more - much more on that later.

The only thing that makes my skin crawl more than that song is No Rain by Blind Melon. Fuck me sideways, I hate that song. It's a 'swandive arms-outstretched at the radio just to make it STOP' kind of song.

It's the bloke pretending to have Tourette's at the start that's a bit distasteful.

Thing is, I listened to some B-52's (the obscure stuff, not the Flintstones soundtrack with the worst pun on a band name ever), and was genuinely impressed. I thought they were like.. the Pixies for children or something.

But the problem I have with it is that it disguises everyone's perception of Van Morrison. Makes everyone assume that he's a one-hit wonder good pub singer, rather than the utter genius who made things like Astral Weeks, Moondance, Tupelo Honey and Veedon Fleece.

I quite enjoy giving hard-nosed Van Morrison sceptics a copy of 'It's Too Late to Stop Now' and asking them about it afterwards. All but one has come tound to loving him...

Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up
Boyz II Men - End Of The Road
D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better
Fugees - Killing Me Softly (Personal taste on this, I know a lot of people probably like it, but I think it's atrocious)
R Kelly - I Believe I Can Fly
TLC - No Scrubs